Top Ten Tuesday

1950s My Parents’ Teen Years

September 7, 2021 /

Howdy-hi, folks!  Now that Labor Day is past, I am ready to crank things up in Blogosphere.  I’m never quite ready to come back after a long hiatus and especially after a partial one.  I never truly step away I’m just busy doing stuff behind the scene.  I borrowed from my good friend, John at The Sound of One Hand Typing, the idea to feature top ten songs on Tuesdays from a particular year or decade or even an artist.  I don’t know if there are any rules to follow except to go where my mind takes me and really if you’re like me, as long as there’s music playing then nothing else matters.

The 50s gave birth to a new kind of sound Rock n’ Roll.  According to History & Headlines, Ike Turner recorded the first rock n’ roll song in March 1951, Rocket 88 making music history.   I found it interesting what one YouTube commenter, Eric Walz said.

In early 1951, B.B. King recommended Sam Phillips’ services at Sun Records to the Mississippi-based band “Kings of Rhythm,” led by a teenage Ike Turner. In the band’s haste to fix a flat tire the road trip to Memphis, one of their guitar amps fell out of the car’s trunk and onto the pavement. Upon arrival at Sun Studios, guitarist Willie Kizart plugged in the amp and got a horrible, fuzzy, distorted noise. The speaker cone of his amp seemed to have broken in the fall. The amp was shot and the group feared their shot at recording a song was over before it had even started. Sam Phillips, however, had a different idea. Running to the diner next door, he grabbed some paper and stuffed it into the amp, giving it a new, unique sound, like a muffled saxophone bass. For Phillips, this wasn’t just a quick fix, but in fact something better: something different. When you listen to the the song widely hailed as rock and roll’s first, “Rocket 88,” you’ll hear exactly what he created when he stuffed that amp with paper. A fuzzy rock sound that helped launch a genre.

 

In today’s Top Ten Tuesday playlist I’m going with #1 songs from the 50s since this is the decade my folks lived their teen years.  Daddy entered his teen years in 1951 and Mommy turned 13 in 1958. I think it’s only fitting to kick my first edition off with none other than the King of Rock n’ Roll who had the most top hits and longest time spent on the chart from January 1951 through August 1958.  Here are Elvis Presley’s 10 chart topping songs plus a bonus track that also charted.  

 

Playlist tracks:

  1. I Want You, I Need You, I love You
  2. Hard Headed Woman
  3. Too Much
  4. Don’t
  5. Love Me Tender
  6. Teddy Bear
  7. Jailhouse Rock
  8. Heartbreak Hotel
  9. All Shook Up
  10. Don’t Be Cruel
  11. Hound Dog

 

Let’s build a playlist together! Leave a #1 song title from the 50s in comments and if I use it, then I’ll give you credit for the contribution.   Hopefully, I’m ready to tackle my everyday blogging challenge.  I periodically spent time over the summer thinking about how I want to move forward on CAAC. 

In times past I’ve joined Stacy’s Tuesday Random Thoughts and Sandee’s Happy Tuesday.  I’m trying to figure how I want to add these back into my blogging routine and while I may not participate, I plan to visit these lovely ladies today.  I hope you’ll grab your coffee and follow my lead.  That’s it for today.  I’ll be back tomorrow for my next edition of Wild Wednesdays, the party where just about anything goes.  I hope to see you then! X💋X💋, Cathy

This is from my 2020 A2Z Pinup Girl Series, original posted here. I re-invented her a bit changing her facial features, hair, and gave her an ottoman to sit on. Click to enlarge!

18 Comments

    • Cathy Kennedy

      September 8, 2021 at 9:19 am

      At first I thought you meant Fleetwood Mac. I knew the 50s would’ve been too early for them, so I had to DuckDuckGo your contribution and naturally I hadn’t heard of the group or the song. Great pick!

    • Cathy Kennedy

      September 8, 2021 at 9:18 am

      Ellen,

      I don’t know if my folks were Elvis’ fans but his music was popular when they were kids is all I can say. I really need to ask them such questions.

  • Sandee

    September 7, 2021 at 1:50 pm

    I was born in 1951. I’m seasoned.

    My pick for the 50s is The Everly Brothers All I Have To Do Is Dream.

    Have a fabulous day, Cathy. Love and hugs. ♥

    • Cathy Kennedy

      September 8, 2021 at 9:18 am

      Sandee,

      The Everly Brothers had such dreamy voices! They had a Knoxville connection. I think they lived here at one point. I vaguely remember this from doing a bit of digging on them a few years back. Sometimes, things go in one brain cell and out the other. roll eyes 😀 Thanks for your song contribution, my friend.

  • Debbie D.

    September 7, 2021 at 10:53 am

    Hi Cathy, your video isn’t available in Canada, but I’m familiar with all of those Elvis tunes. He certainly embodies the sounds of the 1950s! 🙂 Heartbreak Hotel is a favourite. Interesting story about Ike Turner and the first rock ‘n’ roll song. It’s a familiar tune, but I didn’t know the name of it before.

    My contribution to your list would be Tequila, by The Champs. It was a number one hit in 1958.

    Daily blogging is a tough road and I admire anyone who can pull that off on a regular basis. All the best to you!

    • Cathy Kennedy

      September 8, 2021 at 9:13 am

      Debbie,

      I’m sorry my YT clip wasn’t Canadian friendly. 🙂 I’m not sure how to check if it’s compliant for viewers outside the states. Is there a special trick to this? Daily blogging is hard and I’m sure I’ll fizzle out after a month or so and that’s when I’ll back off a bit before resuming the craziness. 🙂 Thanks for sharing your song pick and visit, my dear!

  • Thomas Anderson

    September 7, 2021 at 6:55 am

    Hi, Cathy!

    Happy Top 10 Tuesday, dear friend! I hope you and DH had a nice weekend and a tunetastic 4M Monday.

    I absolutely adore your banner for Top Ten Tuesday depicting a brunette teenager doing the type of multitasking that was common in the 50s, hanging on the phone while playing records on her little record player. That record player of hers looks exactly like the one my family owned in the mid 50s when I started getting interested in mewsic. In blog conversations, I refer to it as my “tiny tinny turntable” because it was cheap but got the job done, introducing me to the exciting world of popular mewsic and rock & roll. I played DJ with that modest machine down in the basement, spinning my parents’ records and ones my big brother brought home. I spent hours listening to both sides of platters, a habit that stayed with me all my life.

    I thoroughly enjoyed your Elvis play list. Your mommy is only 5 years older than Shady and your daddy was close to my big brother’s age. My brother bought Elvis 45s and left them at home for me to play when he joined the U.S. Air Force. I distinctly remember spinning “All Shook Up,” “Don’t Be Cruel” and the flip side of the latter, “Hound Dog,” on my primitive “boomer box” in the subterranean game room of our house.

    “Too Much” is one of my favorite Elvis records, among many. That’s a nicely restored clip from The Ed Sullivan Show. Notice how the camera stayed in tight and cropped Elvis from the waist up. The jittery censors were afraid to show his gyrating pelvis to the national audience. I also get a kick out of the expression on Elvis’ face as he sings on Sullivan. He sneers, apparently trying to come across as a tough punk, but every once in a while he falls out of character and breaks out in a smile when he sees how the giddy girls in the audience are reacting to his performance. You found an excellent clip of Elvis doing one of his biggest hits of the 50s,”(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear,” in his 1957 movie Loving You. Coincidentally, the hostess of my new post at Shady’s Place this morning, Yvonne Lime (aka Joyce Martin), appeared in that Elvis film, Loving You, in the uncredited role of “Sally.”

    For my contribution to your #1 song of the 50s play list, I’ll pick another record that my parents owned, one that captured my imagination and one that I played over and over again on my little box in the basement: “Love Letters In The Sand” by Pat Boone.

    I know many a man (including Shady DK) who would flip his lid if he encountered a cutie like your pinup girl from 2020 making a return visit to end today’s post.

    Have a happy Tuesday and a wonderful week, dear friend Cathy!

    • Cathy Kennedy

      September 8, 2021 at 8:12 am

      Tom,

      My mommy was a just a child at 15 when she got married and then 16 months later I arrived on the scene, but that was par for the norm in those days. Elvis was a mega talent. I remember when Lisa Marie wanted to be a singer. I figured she would be a carbon copy of her daddy but she wasn’t or at least in her early years. Now, I’m curious to sample some of her music tracks. Don’t you just love it when your brain goes off in a different direction? Thanks for contributing “Love Letters In The Sands”. I have to figure out how to work in my readers TTT picks. I’m sorta thinking about trying to use them on a different day, maybe for my upcoming Five For Friday song picks. That would be a spot! Thanks for joining in the fun, my friend. Have a terrific week!

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